What happens if aliens are real?

[Soph0571]

Imagine if E.T., Yoda, and the Na’vi were more than just fictional beings—and what if we could talk to them from Earth? It might be possible one day, thanks to astronomers who sent a message to a star system that may have the ability to support life. The message, which included music and math, was sent in October, but it was announced to the public on Thursday, according to Scientific American.

Although we could hear back in 25 years, it’s unlikely we will, Douglas Vakoch, president of Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI) International, told New Scientist.

But, what if we did?

If we hear back, there’s limited guidance in place on how to communicate with the extraterrestrial beings, according to Seth Shostak, a senior astronomer for the SETI (Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute.

“There are some protocols, but I think that’s an unfortunate name, and it makes them sound more important than they are,” Shostak told Live Science.

[link:https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/what-happens-if-aliens-are-real/|

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. It could very well be that their response would be to nudge an asteroid

directly at us to sterilize the planet.

[PJMcK]

2. An interesting but very light-weight article

The likelihood that a radio signal from Earth will be detected, deciphered and elicit a response is pretty far-fetched. Furthermore, we've been sending signals into space for a hundred years. Since radio-- and later television-- signals travel at the speed of light, we have sent an expanding bubble of transmissions that has now inflated to have a radius of about 100 light years. The signal sent in October, although targeting a specific star system, will be just more noise sent into the cosmos from a small planet on the edge of its galaxy. By the way, the article doesn't even indicate which star system was targeted!

I am confident that life is ubiquitous in the Universe. The chemistry of the Universe is consistent as are the physics. But how they combine and interact to form life on another planet or moon will determine the biology of that environment and it will be unlike the life forms Earth has seen.

It's also a huge leap to assume that extra-terrestrial life will be "intelligent" as we describe it. It's also not clear that the evolution of human intelligence will prove to be a positive trait. The dinosaurs lived for millions of years. Humans have been around for much less time and we're perilously close to destroying our environment and our species. On that time scale, the dinosaurs were a more successful species than humans.

Later in the article, there's this:

“Meeting an advanced civilization could be like Native Americans encountering Columbus. That didn't turn out so well,” Hawking said in his 2016 documentary series, “Stephen Hawking’s Favorite Places,” Space.com reports.

However, Shostak argues that there’s a problem with the Columbus analogy.

“The analogy isn’t terribly apt. These folks weren’t doing exploration for its own sake. They found something new by accident,” Shostak said, according to NBC. “A better analogy might be the discovery of Antarctica or the source of the Nile. These really were exploration efforts.”

Dr. Shostak profoundly misses the point that Dr. Hawking made. Columbus was exploring for economic reasons and his discoveries were not really accidents. And then, when he encountered the native peoples, he conquered them to claim their lands and resources. This behavior will guide humans' reach into space. If we find life in the cosmos, our history doesn't provide any confidence that we'll behave like the Star Trek explorers with their Prime Directive.

In the event that extra-terrestrial intelligence comes our way, I doubt that it will be advantageous to us. First, the aliens' intelligence will far exceed our own as the ability to traverse the incredible distances of space will indicate much higher intelligence. Second, would they even bother to communicate with us? Do we try to communicate with the "lower" life forms on our own planet? Lastly, their presence would not necessarily be benevolent to Earth.

If I believed in a conscious creator, I'd have to say that it has either a great sense of humor or is a brilliant and careful scientist. The impossible distances of the Universe coupled with the speed limit of light means that we can have hints of what's out there but we won't be able to go ourselves. I think that's funny! Alternatively, scientists are very careful to isolate their experiments in order to prevent cross polluting one another. Perhaps such a creator made space so big for just that reason.

A closing thought: it was wonderfully ethical for NASA to direct the Cassini probe to destroy itself in Saturn's atmosphere in order to prevent it from possibly polluting any of Saturn's moons with microbes from Earth. If only we were as careful with our own planet.

[RKP5637]

3. K&R! n/t

[scarytomcat]

4. if they came here and saw our militarism and destructive

tendencies they would do everything they could to slow our space travel down. Who would want us as neighbors?

[sammythecat]

6. The only reason I can think of

for alien visitors to establish contact with us would be if they thought we might be the only intelligent life they will find. As has been said here, the fact that they could travel here shows their technology, and likely their civilization as well, is far, far superior to ours.

We already know how we should behave to be a better society, but it seems our nature just will not allow us to be good to one another. Greed, fear, and superstition still govern our behavior. The biggest danger to ourselves and every other living creature on this planet is, and always has been, us. We have made advances in recent centuries but, in my own uneducated opinion, the likelihood of us becoming a peaceful and benevolent advanced civilization is very small.

We'd be interesting for aliens to study and that's about it. They'd have much to learn about us, but almost nothing to learn from us.

[BadgerKid]

5. I for one welcome our new extraterrestrial overlords. n/t